Rooftop View
by Sophia Hawkins
Summary: Oneshot. Casey and Severide spend the 4th of July off-shift from 51, but stay close to the action.


Rooftop View

"Come on, Kelly."

"I'm coming, I'm coming."

Matt Casey looked down the ladder and called to the man below him, "Hurry up, we're going to be late."

"I said I'm coming."

Casey reached the top of the ladder and stepped up onto the roof of 51 and stepped aside as Kelly ascended right behind him, and moved over to the side and started pulling up the webbing they'd earlier secured to the rooftop. As the webbing gathered into a pile by Kelly's feet, he pulled the other end up, which was secured around a cooler, set it on the roof, and opened the lid revealing a six-pack of chilled beer and some leftovers from the barbecue that night.

Off in the distance there was the familiar explosion of artillery shells and the sky was already exploding into showers of golden sparks.

"I told you we'd be late," Casey said.

"Cool your jets, they've been shooting those things off all week, and you know damn well they're gonna keep firing them off until tomorrow morning," Kelly replied as they headed for the two lawn chairs that they already had set up near the edge of the roof.

"Proof once again that outlawing something in Chicago doesn't mean a damn thing," Casey said.

"This is one time I'm not complaining about it," Severide responded.

The two firefighters reached the chairs and sat down with a couple beers just as there was a sudden boom of another shell going up, and in the dark night sky they sat a faint gleam of something rise up high, and explode in a giant circle of gold, silver and red sparks.

"I am so glad we're off-shift this 4th of July," Casey said.

"Hear hear," Kelly reached over and clinked his bottle against Matt's. "Now all the drunken morons with explosives can be Third Watch's problem."

Another explosion had them turning their heads as off in another direction there were several simultaneous bursts of blinding whitish gold sparks all going off right on top of each other.

Then suddenly there were fireworks going off in every direction and neither firefighter knew which way to look, straight ahead there were deafening screams as whatever was being shot off rose into the sky, then they each exploded in small rings of colored sparks: red, green, purple, gold. To one side there was a faint white light in the sky that looked like an obscure flash of lightning. To another side there was the sound of Roman candle balls shooting out of their bases and rising into the sky and let out a loud cracking pop as they burst open into huge balls of color. And from all directions they could hear the sizzling crackles of a dozen kinds of fireworks but none of them could be seen from where the two of them sat.

Casey looked around and in the dark he could make out something red and glowing floating slowly through the air.

"What the hell's that?" he asked.

Kelly leaned forward in his chair and squinted to make out the object, and shrugged it off, "It's one of those fire lanterns."

"I don't care what anybody says, I think those are a bad idea," Casey said.

"They're made so they can't set fire when they land," Kelly told him.

"Yeah, and how often on this job do we see something do what it's _not_ supposed to do?" Casey replied.

"Fair comment," Severide said as he looked back at the fireworks.

"All it'd take would be for one to malfunction in a dry field somewhere and we've got a 3 alarm call on our hands," Casey said.

"No more than the same risks taken with every single thing getting blown up tonight," Kelly pointed out. "Especially anything that flies into the air, nobody knows where they're going to land: rockets, missiles-"

"There was a sudden hissing sound as something briefly flew into the air some ways away from them, there were some bright flares, then it died out and for a brief second in the dark they could _see_ the object falling back to earth.

"Those stupid flying crystals that _nobody_ can figure out why they're still sold," he added, "I mean if you want to talk fire hazard..."

There wasn't anything to see this time but somewhere in the city they could hear the big _booming_ fireworks that almost sounded like thunder, but there wasn't anything anywhere that they could see to give any indication where they were or what they were.

From somewhere closer by they could hear the deafening shrilling shriek of a fountain.

"What the hell is that?" Casey asked as he covered his ears, "one of those screamers?"

"I think it's one of those Cuckoo fountains," Kelly answered.

"I swear," Casey lowered his hands, "you know that phrase 'Screaming like a banshee', I'm convinced if there ever was such a thing, _that's_ what they'd sound like."

Another noise erupted into the night. It was a common belief that gunshots sounded like firecrackers, and sometimes this was actually true, which especially made the 4th of July in Chicago very difficult, especially for law enforcement. But this time it was easy to decipher the sound of firecrackers because the sound continuously carried on without end or even a pause.

"Somebody must've gotten a whole roll of them," Kelly noted, thankful that from where they were, the sound wasn't as deafening as it would be up close and personal to the destruction of hundreds or thousands of crackers exploding.

By now the acrid odors of smoke and burnt gunpowder filled the air. Only on the 4th of July could those combined smells be considered pleasant and for Chicago, not always even then.

Straight ahead there was a familiar, loud wailing shriek as a small white dot shot up in the air, and then exploded in a small white burst, followed by a glittering crackle of sparks, and was accompanied by another, and another, and another.

"Saturn missiles," Casey said. All the years they'd spent on the job they'd gotten accustomed with most of the fireworks that people illegally shot off, and though it hadn't occurred to any of them at the time, getting caught in all the crossfires that they had had given them some expertise on what was going off based on the sights and sounds they put out.

As soon as one exploded, another immediately followed it, and another immediately after that, and they continued for what felt like forever.

"Must've gotten one of those huge sets," Kelly commented.

There was a detonating boom from somewhere and a couple seconds later an artillery shell burst over the treetops, and another immediately exploded over it, the first one a huge ball of gold, the second that half enclosed the first one a bright red. A few seconds later, they heard another one go off, and from another direction saw two explode on top of each other in green and purple. Several more boomed and about a dozen all formed on top of each other in almost a white gold color.

"If people could actually get through a holiday _without_ being a bunch of idiots, it might even be enjoyable," Casey said.

Severide laughed, "Hey, at least somebody else has to do all the work. All we have to do is sit back and enjoy it."

"Hmm, true," Casey replied.

The whole rooftop shook as a sudden _BOOM_ rattled the street down below. They couldn't see anything, but it sounded, and _felt_, like a bomb had just gone off.

"What the hell was _that_?" Casey asked as he sprang to his feet, feeling his heart pounding against his chest, _feeling_ like he'd just cheated death, a feeling he was well familiar with after almost 20 years as a firefighter.

The bells toned and they could hear dispatch relaying a call.

"Whatever it is, I think we're gonna find out by next shift," Kelly said.

Very quickly they heard the doors to the apparatus floor raising and heard the sirens as 51, 81 and 61 rolled down the driveway from their appointed spots and took off like a collective bat out of hell.

The two firefighters sitting on the roof waved as the ambulance and the rigs left the station house, knowing nobody down there could see them.

"Good luck, guys!" Kelly bellowed out, and added almost as an afterthought, "You're gonna need it."

"Oh well," Casey sighed, "I guess if it wasn't for drunken morons blowing themselves up this would be a boring day for anyone involved."

"That's what I like about you, Casey, you're always such an optimist," Severide said cynically.

"Better them than us," Matt said as he turned and clinked his half empty bottle against Kelly's, "Happy 4th of July."


End file.
